Highly-regarded regions where you have a blind spot?

I spent quite a lot of time in Chile between 2007 and 12 and while I think there are new style high end wines out there I didn't try the more mainstream fancy ones were completely unappealing to me. But indeed in other respects an utterly amazing country to visit.

I have had very little luck with Spanish red outside of Rioja, and don't drink much new world wine at all, but would be delighted to be convinced I was wrong. In terms of areas that I think I probably should/would like but haven't explored properly, Austrian riesling and Savoie wines in general.
 
Ian Hampsted said:
Not so sure they are blind spots but Eastern Europe and South America, especially Chile. I hear Chile is a fabulous country to visit and I would love to go there one day. But I would not be bothered if this trip did not include winery tours, because most Chilean wines I have tried I would describe as unbelievably bland. So it was with some annoyance that I saw my mail box clogged up this morning with the latest 98 point offerings from Chile. Yawn…
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Ian, again, I think a dozen wines could easily be put together that might help you change your mind. On one level what you say is absolutely true: there is a lot of bland wine made in Chile, and historically it was almost created to be that way: vineayrds for the modern industry were designed by engineers, who chose the flattest, most accessible areas they could around Santiago, avoiding the coasts and the hillsides like the plague. While some really good wines can be made from these vineyards by some producers, a lot of it fits your description. However that has really changed, with more and more coastal vineards, high altitude vineyards, and exploring new regions away from the Central Valleys over the past 10 to 20 year - much further south in the Chilean Lake District or much further north in the Atacama Desert, where some striking Syrah, Pinot, Riesling, etc. is being made, as well as lots of experimental stuff uisng grapes like Palomino, formerly used for Pisco, etc. It's a shame that Chile has the dull and cheap reputation - though partly deserved - because there is another and much more interesting side to the story too.
 
Kevin Courtney said:
Interesting how something can suddenly take off. Probably no other country or wine style has taken off like that in NZ. Possibly the equivalent of Picpoul in the UK. Now I'm probably thread drifting.
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A Sydney retailer has just devoted a page in its quarterly mailout to that very thing - 'full throttle' chardonnay, for which there's clearly a demand, but not so many suppliers here as there used to be. The buttery, all-malo style, goes with vanilla slice but no other food! They are mostly Oz, but they're also offering Roberto Sarotto Puro from Piedmont ($30) and Orin Swift Mannequin from California ($75)
 
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